Section Four
Regardless of the layoff strategy used, the impact in
human terms will be considered by all but the most cold-
blooded managers. The human cost of a layoff or termination
may be assessed in terms of the anticipated length of the
period of unemployment. Clearly, the morale of remaining
employees will be adversely affected by prolonged periods of
unemployment of those laid off or terminated, except in the
most extreme cases of misbehavior. Unfortunately, it is difficult
to predict the average length of time employees will remain
unemployed because there are numerous explanatory factors.
However, a New York outplacement firm has used a 60-variable
formula to predict the period of unemployment for its clients.^75
A rule of thumb also exists. Although its predictive accuracy is
unknown, the rule predicts that a terminated manager will
remain unemployed for “one month for every $10,000
of income.”^76
barry
(Barry)
#1